The present invention relates to a display controller adapted to process data. More specifically, the present invention relates to a display controller environment in an A/V system and adapted to process, decode or decompress one or more input data streams (alternatively referred to as “input data”, “input data streams” or “data streams”).
Currently, a plurality of formats or techniques is used to compress audio-video programs for transmission and storage. See, for example, the compression standards set forth in ISO/EC IS 13818-1,2,3: Information Technology-Generic Coding of Moving Pictures and Associated Audio Information: Systems, Video and Audio (alternatively referred to as “MPEG-2”) including Annex D thereof (alternatively referred to as “Annex D”); ISO/EC IS 11172-1,2,3: Information Technology-Generic Coding of Moving Pictures and Associated Audio for Digital Storage Media at up to about 1.5 Mbits/sec: Systems, Video and Audio (alternatively referred to as “MPEG-1”); Dolby AC-3; Motion JPEG, etc, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. While only MPEG-2, MPEG-1, Dolby AC-3, Motion JPEG formats are discussed, any audio/video format is contemplated.
A/V systems are growing more complex, requiring that A/V decoders integrate more processing features or modules. A complex A/V decoder may decode several input streams simultaneously, requiring several different processing features or modules. For example one set-top box including a decoder may support two televisions. Each television may display different programs. It is contemplated that each television may be able to support picture-in-picture (alternatively referred to as “PIP”), such that each television may display two different programs simultaneously. In this example, the set-top box may also decode another program to record for future playback.
Methodological ways to connect processing modules in A/V systems are not well known. Most processing modules are connected together in an ad-hoc manner. As a result, such ad-hoc designs may become difficult to verify, maintain and reuse. Furthermore, the host is required to handle any format changes in such ad-hoc designs in a time critical manner (adding a real-time overhead burden to the host). Double buffering and interrupts are used to prevent the failure in such format changes, but display artifacts still result.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.